I think that’s reasonable. As bullish as my response was, in the end, we all have our priorities and I think its’s totally fair to value convenience as long as you understand what that convenience really means. Taking mitigations to get your news using platforms that don’t rely on algorithms to provide what will delight or infuriate you is a step in the right direction.

In my opinion is that the issue is feeding data into a monolith that knows you better than you know yourself. The amount of data they have for everyone allows them to create profiles and find similarities that can predict proclivities that you don’t know about yet.

There’s nothing wrong about enjoying the conveniences of being recommended things you’re interested in, but this also means that they can sugeest things you didn’t even know you wanted (and probably wouldn’t have ever have wanted.

Combine that with the fact that this doesn’t just stop at product placement. It becomes all to easy for a malicious company to feed you news and opinion meant to make you feel a certain way or sway your opinion. It gives corporations way too much power over the thoughts and opinions you have on a day-to-day basis and makes you powerless against them.

And before you say, “I’m a smart, well-rounded person and would not be susceptible to those things,” literally everyone is susceptible. There’s no outsmarting them if you play their game. The only way to win is through digital privacy.

Thanks, I was missing that point of view but I see what you mean.

I guess the way I see it is that, right now, people are enthusiastically joining in, which is still driving a sense of community. I guess I’m not as convinced that, long term, people will be driven to make new communities. I feel like the more likely scenario is that people will grow bored and go back to their normal, everyday posting.

Edit: I do agree the invester point is definitely one I didn’t consider and is definitely a huge factor to all of this. Of course, it goes without saying that it at least signals the turmoil at Reddit and brings more attention to it. Not all press is good press in this case.

Whatever happens, I fully intend to sit back and enjoy watching the drama unfold.

I think these malicious compliance subreddit responses are as fun as the next person, but honest question: doesn’t this work out in Reddit’s favor? They don’t care what’s posted as long as content is being generated and traffic being driven to their site, right?